CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o's reputation as an elite player took a hit during the Fighting Irish's 42-14 loss to Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7.

Now, a far more serious indictment of Te'o, this of his character, has emerged.

Numerous news outlets, such as Sports Illustrated, reported that when Te'o helped Notre Dame to a 20-3 win at Michigan State on Sept. 15, he played with a heavy heart.

The story went that within several hours shortly before the game, Te'o learned of the death of his grandmother, Annette Santiago, and then of the death of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, 22.

Kekua, a Stanford graduate according to the stories, had suffered injuries in a car accident and was then diagnosed with leukemia, the stories said.

Teo's play under such trying circumstances became an inspiration, as Notre Dame went 12-0 and reached No. 1 in the national polls.

It turns out that, reportedly, the story is a hoax -- one that Te'o perpetuated as it was reported by some of the largest electronic and print media outlets in the nation. And, Deadspin reports, they can find no evidence that Lennay Kekua was a real person.

Manti Te'o did lose his grandmother this past fall. Annette Santiago died on Sept. 11, 2012, at the age of 72, according to Social Security Administration records in Nexis. But there is no SSA record there of the death of Lennay Marie Kekua, that day or any other. Her passing, recounted so many times in the national media, produces no obituary or funeral announcement in Nexis, and no mention in the Stanford student newspaper.

Nor is there any report of a severe auto accident involving a Lennay Kekua. Background checks turn up nothing. The Stanford registrar's office has no record that a Lennay Kekua ever enrolled. There is no record of her birth in the news. Outside of a few Twitter and Instagram accounts, there's no online evidence that Lennay Kekua ever existed.

The photographs identified as Kekua—in online tributes and on TV news reports—are pictures from the social-media accounts of a 22-year-old California woman who is not named Lennay Kekua. She is not a Stanford graduate; she has not been in a severe car accident; and she does not have leukemia. And she has never met Manti Te'o.

Notre Dame has issued a statement on the matter through Dennis Brown, assistant vice president.:

"On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te’o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax.

"While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators."

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